Chapter 20 - THE KING AND HIS QUEEN
One year later, Diamond woke before sunrise.
Caprice was sleeping beside him.
He turned toward her.
For a moment, he remembered the night everything began.
The exhausted maid.
The sofa.
The fireplace.
The first smile.
The first kiss.
The first time she said she wasn't leaving.
He reached out and touched her hair.
Caprice opened one eye.
"You're staring."
"I know."
"Why?"
"Because I still can't believe you stayed."
She smiled sleepily.
"You gave me a house."
"I did."
"You gave me money."
"Yes."
"You gave me a new identity."
"Yes."
She moved closer.
"And I gave it all back."
Diamond smiled.
"Why?"
"Because I didn't want a new life."
She kissed his cheek.
"I wanted ours."
He wrapped his arms around her.
Outside, the city was waking.
Cars moved through the streets.
Businesses opened.
People went to work.
The world continued.
The empire continued too.
But Diamond no longer ruled it from a place of anger.
He ruled knowing that power was temporary.
Fear was temporary.
Money was temporary.
Even the empire was temporary.
But love—
Love could make a broken man believe tomorrow was worth surviving for.
Caprice rested her head against his chest.
"Do you regret anything?"
Diamond thought about it.
"The bullet."
She looked up.
"Obviously."
"No."
He smiled.
"I regret surviving it alone."
Caprice's eyes softened.
"You don't have to anymore."
Diamond kissed her forehead.
The paralyzed mafia boss who had once believed his life ended the day he lost the use of his legs had discovered something far more important than walking.
He had learned how to live.
And the exhausted maid who entered his mansion simply to pay her mother's bills had become the one person powerful enough to change the king himself.
She had not saved his empire.
She had saved his heart.
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And in the end, that was the only kingdom Diamond Kelly had ever truly wanted.
The End.
